MillerCoors Keeping Name, Headquarters in Chicago

Chris Furnari

Mar. 18, 2016 at 12:38 PM

MillerCoors is staying in Chicago.

In a note sent to employees yesterday, CEO Gavin Hattersley said the company would keep its name, and its headquarters in Chicago, after Molson Coors acquires the 58 percent stake in the joint venture with SABMiller it does not already own.

There had been speculation that MillerCoors would look to relocate operations to Colorado or Canada — Molson Coors has offices in Denver and Montreal — following Anheuser-Busch InBev’s planned $106 billion takeover of SABMiller. In an effort to appease U.S. antitrust regulators scrutinizing the mega-merger, A-B InBev said it would divest SABMiller’s stake in MillerCoors, agreeing to sell it to Molson Coors for $12 billion.

Hattersley said the decision to keep its Chicago operations in tact was based on a “thorough cost and benefits analysis.”

“We remain confident we will achieve the synergy targets we announced in November, largely from opportunities within our combined procurement, supply chain and shared services operations,” he wrote in the memo.

The company, which employs about 450 people in Chicago, according to theChicago Tribune, also plans to keep the MillerCoors name.

“The name reflects our proud heritage here in the U.S. and has strong recognition and brand equity with our customers,” Hattersley wrote. “As such, we will be ‘MillerCoors, a Molson Coors company.’ This is consistent with other Molson Coors businesses, where they lead with the established brand name in that market.”

Through its diverse collection of storied breweries, MillerCoors brings American beer drinkers an unmatched selection of the highest quality beers steeped in centuries of brewing heritage. Miller Bre...